The Audubon Ballroom had fallen into disrepair after the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, and by the mid-1970s it had become the property of New York City. In the early 1980s, Columbia University proposed the construction of a modern biotechnology center on the site, a plan that later grew to include a research park. After community protests and legal attempts by preservationists to save the building,[7] Columbia sought Betty Shabazz's approval for the project. She appealed for the preservation of the ballroom where her husband had been shot,[8] and a compromise was worked out which allowed the building of the biotechnology center, but also preserved and restored the facade of the Audubon Ballroom building, which would be developed into a museum.[7]

After a decade of wrangling between the university, the city, and historic preservation organizations, the Audubon Business and Technology Center was completed. Betty Shabazz oversaw the development of the Malcolm X Educational Foundation, which she hoped would host international conferences and educate the public about human rights.[9] Plans for the site briefly stalled after Shabazz's death in 1997, but the scope of the center was expanded and it eventually was completed.[5][10]